Roberto+BonillaLBF

Executive Summary
The survey conducted consisted of 250 participants and was conducted using surveymonkey.com for the purpose of gathering data regarding Learning, Boredom, and Fun experiences in the classroom. Participants of the survey were 42.5% male and 52.5% female. Of those, just a little over 50% had either finished or had some graduate education. The age of the participants ranged from 7-63 years of age. After running through a variety of filters, I noticed that responses were similar across the board as far as what experiences were seen as being fun and those that were seen as being boring. The overall conclusion based on the data is listed below.

What Makes Learning Boring?
As teachers, we can only expect the students to be as excited as we are. If we don’t care about the material, the students won’t. Kaybee recalls, “The presenter was speaking about the subject matter with minimal eye contact. It seems as if the presenter was more focused on getting through the material than interacting with the audience.” The tone of voice also plays a role in determining whether or not the students get bored. “The very boring experience was listening to my geometry teacher. He was extremely monotone and didn't engage students in any discussions or participation exercises,” stated Honkey Cat.
 * 1. If the teacher is not excited, the audience won’t be excited.**

While implementing technology is a must, it does the students no good if it doesn’t work or if the students don’t get to appreciate it. CJ recalls, “The material was presented on a screen too far away for us to see well. There was a delay in setting it up due to "technical difficulties" linking the computer to the projector. When the instructor spoke he was looking at the screen, which was filled with numbers and he didn't have any device to pinpoint what on the screen he was referring to.” Testing all resources to make sure they all work is also very important. “The instructor started with a boring lecture about Photoshop and hyped his expertise in it. The instructor had prepared files for students to work on some specific techniques. There were a few students that had trouble accessing them. Some others had difficulty following the techniques presented. After his presentation we were to mimic his technique. The project required too much detailed busy work that did not provide any learning. When I got stuck it was a long wait for the instructor to get to me. Hard to read handout (poor quality photocopy) of some keyboard shortcuts for the techniques that he was utilizing,” stated Pete K.
 * 2. “Winging it” or poor planning on the teachers behalf also played a role.**

Allowing students to ask questions is a great way to keep students engaged. It can be pretty difficult to follow a lesson if students are not allowed to ask questions. “Everyone was afraid of the teacher because he appeared to get angry when asked questions. He asked if we were listening and gave us a dirty look, Bob Ray recalled. Teacher M also commented on this stating, “He mainly spoke the whole time leaving little room for audience participation.”
 * 3. Lessons were boring when asking questions was not allowed or when time ran out.**

Since 88% of the surveyors mentioned no moving around was expected in their boring learning experiences, it was a given that this is one of the causes. Sam-I-am mentioned, “the Professor read from his notes at podium about 150 feet from me. No interaction, just his ramblings on this or that. A few slides, but note taking was key to this class. The subject matter was boring as it was; he just made it worse! An occasional cough or throat clearing broke the monotony but not enough!” Imax also recalled, “every day in class we were supposed to work out of our workbook and ‘listen’ to the teacher drawl on in his monotone voice about dissecting something in which we never did.” There is no way students should be expected to learn about dissecting without also having the hands on experience.
 * 4. No hands on activities guaranteed boredom.**

A great learning experience should satisfy as many of the senses as possible. Although not the most important thing, the look and feel of a learning environment was important to some of the surveyors. “The course was presented in a hotel conference room with multiple rows of hooked-together, cushioned, hotel straight-backed chairs facing forward with a center aisle. The room could probably seat 160-200 participants,” mentioned Shawnee Miss. Awesome Aaron also recalled, “It was a very dark lecture hall with about 400 other students listening to one professor. The windows were covered and the lights were out for her power point presentation.” The time of day a class takes place was also mentioned by Miss Mouse. “The formal class took place in a college setting involving around 250 students. The class started in the afternoon after lunch. The instructor would read power point slides to the class with the lights off.”
 * 5. Time of day and location made learning boring**.

What Makes Learning Fun?
Of those that completed the survey, 59% mentioned that in their fun learning experiences, they were expected to present. Cassie L recalls, “The class was called Comedy in 3D and while every class was fun, one particular session found us performing skits in front of the class. Our group was in a car at a drive-in.” To add to this Bacon describes his/her fun experience. “The task was to perform the scene in a different theme or setting (i.e.: a western time frame or have the characters instead have middle class mob member accents). Not only was this assignment fun, it also made the students think about what the scene was really about instead of just the rhythm and rhyme of the paragraphs.”
 * 1. Presenting and performing makes learning fun**.

Of all the fun experiences, only 14% of the people that completed the survey said they were expected to sit still. Teacher24 said, “Training for new technology for the classroom - mini interactive boards and programs that accompany the boards. We were shown each component and then allowed to ‘play’ with that component immediately after. Then we were asked to create a presentation with the software but were not required to present in class.” Allowing students to work hands on will reinforce the learning experience for students. Based on the data provided, it seemed that many of the enjoyable experiences, including my own, took place in a science class of some sort where labs where part of the experience. Masher recalls, “Mr. Craig, in demonstrating physical principles and laws, would have us create projects that verified the truth of the physical laws. One project involved working with a partner to create a bridge out of balsa wood. The class then competed to see who designed the best bridge based on it's weight and ability to hold weight.”
 * 2. It’s OK to move around and work hands-on.**

A change of scenery always seems to change the mood/attitude of students. Something as simple as taking the lesson outside can do wonders. “When we were learning about predator/prey relationships we played a game where certain individuals were predators and where given a dodge ball to hit their prey with when hunting. Everyone else was prey. The prey was the first to enter the enclosure and a few minutes later the predators came in. The object was to stay alive (if you were prey) and to make as many kills as possible (if you were predator). After the experience we had a discussion about strategies for both and why we were or were not successful,” recalled Fannie Mae.
 * 3. Most fun experiences mentioned took place outside of the classroom.**

Getting students to really think about what they are doing also seems to be important to most of the participants. Joel R recalls, “We had to learn all the bones of the body of a frog by first stripping the flesh off of the bones and cleaning each bone. We then had to break every bone off, clean them and place them in a plastic bag. Finally, we had to put the frog skeleton back together and glue the bones in the correct location.” Although this really is a hands on activity, it also forces the students to really think and analyze what they are doing. In this activity Joel describes, they were forced to pay attention to what they were dissecting, what pieces connected together, and how they were going to put it back together. Thinking critically is something that 66% of the surveyors were expected to do in the fun learning experience.
 * 4. Critical thinking makes everything fun.**

Sometimes allowing the students to feel like they have a say in what they learn really makes a difference. Surprisingly some, most students want to know how they performed. Whether it's the score on a test or their grade in the class, they like feedback. Bumbai Nogohardrub describes one of his positive experiences in regards to choice and feedback. “We were allowed to choose the subject matter and be creative with it. We were expected to have people critique and we were also required to regularly present. Feedback was given by others and the instructor.” Not only is feedback from the instructor important, feedback from peers can also be seen as a a fun learning experience.
 * 5. Choice and feedback really make a difference.**

Implications
After looking through the results from the LBF survey, it only reinforced my thoughts on what students found as interesting and what they think is boring. The sad thing is that no matter how different I think I may be from my co-workers, I still do one or two of the things that are considered boring learning experiences. Nevertheless, I will continue to work on implementing more of the things that are considered to be fun, and try and eliminate as many of the things that considered to be boring. What I did learn from the results of the survey, are some new ideas for hands-on activities. I will definitely jot some of them down, add my own tough, and implement them in at least one of the four different classes I currently teach.